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Dr. Phil might tell you that no one wins an argument, but spare us the hugs and psychology. IBM no longer ships (R.I.P. 2005) or supports (R.I.P. 2006) OS/2, which is now sold under the name eComStation by Serenity Systems. Try getting that factory installed on a Dell laptop.
The history on Windows is a bit richer (in many ways) and proves the good doctor wrong.
Of course, the irony is that IBM and Microsoft teamed up in 1985 to develop OS/2. Two years later they had a product. Three years after that, Microsoft had Windows 3.0 shipping on many PCs and was on its way toward NT while OS/2 was gathering dust on computer super store shelves as a standalone product that lacked a full complement of device drivers. The IBM/Microsoft relationship continued to sour and by the time the last version of OS/2 – the Warp 4 version – shipped in 1996, IBM was on its own.
Today, OS/2, with the dubious distinction of being the first OS to have a fan club, can be found in small pockets of the computer landscape such as bank automated teller machines and the French national railway’s ticket machines.
Windows? We won’t bother rebooting that story here.
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Comments (10)
RE: Windows vs. OS/2By Dave Palmer on October 26, 2007, 10:15 pmHappily, still booting OS/2 since Rel 2.1 Ethernet to Buffalo wireless to Qwest DSL using Firefox, Java and happy as a clam! DB, WP, graphics, nothing fancy...
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RE: Windows vs. OS/2By Anonymous on October 27, 2007, 12:09 pmHaving used Win, Mac and *nix systems a fair amount over the years I have to agree with Dave's comments; OS/2 based systems properly configured are virtually bomb...
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OS/2 vs WindowsBy Dennis on October 28, 2007, 9:26 amI installed OS/2 in 1993 and haven't looked back. As a person with extremely limited technical knowledge, I feel I could have booted my OS/2 system in '93 and not...
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Framing the argumentBy Anonymous on October 28, 2007, 3:35 pmI guess since we are framing the argument in terms of ability to wield anti-competitive monopoly power and not in terms of technical merit, then yes Windows has...
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Windows vs OS/2By bstephan on November 1, 2007, 1:49 pmHere's another happy clam. Been using OS/2 since before Windows 95,and now eComStation. I love the object oriented desktop and find it frustating to try to cope...
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Microsoft payed IBM many 100By Anonymous on November 2, 2007, 1:52 pmMicrosoft payed IBM many 100 of millions dollars after a court ruling a few years ago. Among the reasons was Microsoft using unethical/illegal practice to stop...
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